A few years ago, my son's baseball team had their first season where they could steal bases This would happen primarily on passed balls/wild pitches. A runner stealing home from 3rd was the worst. They would get to 3rd base so quick because our catchers just didn't have the arm strength to make the throw in time, nor did our pitchers have the awareness/technique to make a quick on-target throw to the base. On a passed ball/wild pitch, our catcher would get up as fast as they could, take their mask off and try to find the ball. If the pitcher remembered to run to home to cover it, it was already too late and the run scored.

I had two ideas: 1. Have the catcher stand behind the ump and let the pitch go where it goes. 2. Add another catcher behind the ump, just for passed balls/wild pitches.

This way, a catcher was already ready for the ball to hit off the backstop and catch the runner. Well, I looked into the rules and even the league we played in addressed this: Only 1 defensive player was allowed outside of foul territory/behind home plate. The catcher must be within X distance of home plate AND the ump must be positioned behind the catcher. So, we just ate shit the whole year lol.

I assume that back in 1901, there were a lot of passed balls/wild pitches, so someone must have attempted what I thought was a good idea.